Yes, they've done it before though IIRC. Most of their eyepieces are JOC I think.



Meanwhile ... Life on Mars

 

The Takahashi arrived today.



The dust caps are mine. It came without any.



I have read reviews stating that the housing is plastic. I'm pretty sure it isn't and is a very light metal alloy. I'm not so sure about the base plate, but I'm fairly convinced it is also metal. There is no filter thread in the nosepiece.



As a practice run I had a shoot-out with these and a Baader Zeiss Amici on a bright twilight Venus.



Apart from the mirror-reversed image on the conventional prisms I couldn't tell any real difference. There was no hint of a diffraction spike with the Amici. I used a Baader Double Polarising filter for Venus. I could put it into the nosepiece on the Baader diagonals but threaded it into the eyepiece for the Takahashi.



The Tak' has no helical focuser, so is probably more likely going to be used with my refractors.



Some have complained about the Tak's plastic collet snagging undercuts. I tried a variety of small eyepieces, including a 15mm Masuyama clone, 10mm and 35mm Baader Eudiascopics, 8mm, 15mm and 32mm Tele Vue Plossls without incident. I can't choose a real winner. The Takahashi gave a bright, sharp image as did the Baader Zeiss Amici. The Baader bog-standard wasn't really any different and had the advantage over the Tak' of having a helical focuser. The Takahashi and standard Baader diagonals are about the same price. If I get a chance at Sirius B with the 127mm Mak I'll take both Baader diagonals just in case. The helical really does make the difference. However, the Takahashi is a lovely light little quality diagonal. So they're all keepers.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot, I also got a butcher's at Saturn.

 

Well, the way the weather's going, I doubt it will be anytime soon. It might be easier around February as Orion is well placed earlier in the evening when the weather is sometimes a bit milder. At 02:00 everything's iced over here. I got out late February this year (on my birthday) at around 19:00 and saw Orion and the Winter Albireo. So I may have to wait until then. Depends whether global warming is working for me or not lol.

 

Baader with 7.5mm extension tube.

 

On a single speed focuser it does. I've been using one on my Newtonians (T-2 focuser threaded onto the T-thread) for years. The trade off for a fine focus ability is slightly less in-focus. The Baader T-2 diagonal I reviewed comes supplied with a nosepiece and helical. Although the Baader-Zeiss Amici doesn't come supplied with anything. I used a William Optics Amici with a helical for a few years on the Mak's for lunar observing. I prefer an upside-down Moon, but mirror-reversed does my head in lol.


New and old WO Amici diagonals.